In early December 2103 the European Commission announced consultations regarding copyright in the European Union. After the last year’s failure of the Licenses of Europe process, we hope that this time the Commission will much more strongly account for citizens’ opinions on the subject of creating new legal frames for our future use of culture in the Internet.

To encourage citizens to particpate in the European Commission consultations on copyright, we prepared a useful platform in Polish, which made it easy to answer the 80 questions posed by the Commission.

We are positively surprised with the great public response to the consultations. We have noted over 800 forms downloaded from the platform. The Commission promised to present the full data as soon as possible. We already know that over 11 000 responses were submitted.

The Modern Poland Foundation also prepared an official position paper in reply to the consultations in which we underline that copyright should take into account the perspective of citizens’ freedoms.

Yesterday five non-governmental organisations sent their two joint letters – to the Minister of Economy and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage – about the negotiations being conducted on the trade agreement between Canada and the European Union (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement – CETA).In their letters the organisations demand that the Polish negotiating position in respect of the agreement and the relevant government’s actions in the current round of negotiations should be disclosed.

It is stated in the letters, among others: „In spite of an aura of mystery surrounding the negotiations of the agreement, the European Commission has recently confirmed that in the current version of CETA there are penal sanctions corresponding to the widely criticized ACTA provisions. These disproportionate penal measures are also intended to fight a non-commercial use of works under copyright (e.g. at cultural events). This is against social practice which fosters innovation and the development of new business models as well as against the reform of the Act on Copyright and Related Rights, necessary to adapt law to contemporary technical possibilities.”

And further: „We expect that Poland will take active steps to remove disproportionate penal sanctions, as well as all other repressive clauses on copyrights from CETA (as well as any and all other contracts and trade agreements, current and future). Such regulations should not be included in trade agreements, especially when negotiations are secret, without public debate. However, we expect above all that the Polish government will disclose its position adopted in the negotiations of the CETA agreement and penal sanctions included in the draft thereof.”

Hereby the Modern Poland Foundation presents a stance on the European Commission’s directive concerning the modification of the rules of collective copyright and related rights prepared within the public consultations announced by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.